Study for the Figure of Saint Peter

Daniele da Volterra (Daniele Ricciarelli)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This sculptural, carefully rendered study of the standing figure of Saint Peter (identified by the keys in his hand at left) is a rare early drawing by Daniele da Volterra, datable to the mid-1540s, when the artist had renounced the relatively provincial vocabulary of his early training in Volterra and Siena in favor of the bold, grand manner of the Roman school, then dominated by the aging Michelangelo and the pupils of Raphael (who had died in 1520). The style and technique of the drawing resemble those of two studies in black chalk connected with the Ulignano Altarpiece (Museo Diocesano d'Arte Sacra, Volterra) -a monumental picture that includes a figure of Saint Peter at left, though of a rather different design, and is dated 1545 by the artist himself on the steps of the Madonna's throne. As seen here, Daniele's chalk drawings of the 1540s were inspired by the graphic techniques of Michelangelo's presentation drawings of the 1530s and are all characterized by a soft modeling of the shadows, in which the minute cross-hatching of the strokes is left evident, mostly without blending. (Carmen C. Bambach, 2007)

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.